Unless somebody changes their mind, the underground car park beneath the municipal market will again be closed with vehicle owners finding themselves out on the streets – the last time this happened was June 2011 when the lease went from Parking Leo to Hermanos García.
The problem is that several columns on both floors of the car park are eroded (concrete cancer), corresponding, more or less, to the fish stalls on the market above. The immediate consequences are that vehicle owners will have the entry point closed at 08.00h tomorrow, Sunday, leaving them until 08.00h to be out before the exit is also closed.
There is an argument raging between the Town Hall and the lease holders over whose responsibility the repair of the said columns is: Hermanos García says that the columns are part of the infrastructure for the whole complex; i.e., the parking and municipal market above it. The Town Hall says that it was written into the conditions of the leasehold for the taker to make good this problem.
Again, Hermanos García says that the conditions stipulated that the facilities had to be brought into line with existing regulations; i.e., a second stairway and a lift to be installed (the same as the two, new, underground car parks on the sea front) but nothing about structural overhauls.
Well, somebody is not telling the truth but until the Seaside Gazette can obtain access to a copy of the contract we won’t know who.
Finally, the perplexing question is, if the parking has to be closed because it is dangerous, then surely the market above it is at greater risk and should also be closed – a councillor has assured stall holders that this is not necessary.
If, on the other hand, it is not dangerous, why close the whole of the parking, as it could have the affected area closed and the rest still operating?
Editorial Note: There has been nothing but problems with every one of the underground car parks in Almuñécar and La Herradura from the very beginning – it is not necessary to remind readers of the ordeal suffered by local business over the horrendous and drawn out construction of the San Crístobal and Vellilla car parks.
Free parking around Almuñécar was removed to favour these car parks under the pretense of ‘giving more room for pedestrians, even though, in the case of the market area, these same ‘widened pavements’ have been swallowed up by bar terraces, leaving pedestrians even less room than before.
A one-level, underground car park could have been built under the Friday Market area for a fraction of the cost, or alternatively, a multi-storey car park on the same location, which would have been even cheaper, accessible directly from the main road.
Going back to the Municipal Market, it was shoddily built just over 20 years ago, hence these problems now, so it is hard to consider how the Town Hall should be shovelling the responsibility for making safe these municipal installations onto a private company.
(News: Almunecar, Costa Tropical, Granada, Andalucia)